AJ's Science Fair Experiment

I named this blog Sunview St. because this street is an extension of my childhood in many ways. It's nurturing, familiar, safe, and full of adventure. At the end of our street, there is a lovely park, and a cool creek that our little guy loves to "have adventures".

We are blessed to have both affordable access to such a wonderful neighbourhood, and also the luxury of having so many awesome "childhood" necessities like room to roam and get dirty.

There are some super families who live here. We have known the VT family for about 8 years now. They are a constant source of love and caring kindness in our lives. When we were looking for a home back 5 years ago, our real-estate agent Nathan lead us to "Sunview St." It's really name it not actually Sunview Street... that is actually the name of the street I grew-up on in Waterloo, ON for 22 years. AJ, one of the VT's sons lives on our street, and I have known him since he was a little guy.

He and I share a similar interest in that we like growing stuff. His brother too. More about him shortly :o)

AJ has a school science fair project coming up, and he has some interesting observations that I would like to pass on to the blogging world.

I interviewed AJ this past weekend at his kitchen table.

Here is what we discussed:

Me:    AJ, how did you come-up with your topic?
AJ:     Mom and Dad helped me come-up a few ideas when we were brainstorming. At first, we were thinking about a topic about food, but then we thought of the topic of seeing how plants grow under certain conditions.
Me:   Interesting! Tell me more!
AJ:    Well. I came up with the idea of playing two different kinds of music to two of the same plants. We started out with tulips and put classical music on for 1 hour for one plant, and heavy metal on for another plant for one hour. Then we moved onto cucumber plants for the second phase.

Me: What is your hypothesis for your experiment?
AJ: I think that the classical music plant will thrive far better than the heavy metal one.

Here are the visual results from the first experiment:

----- tulip plant photos here ------

Then AJ went on to explain that they needed to get some new plants, because the bulbs were seasonally over with. This is where I come in.

AJ: We got the new cucumber plants from you.

I should add here... Julia and I jumped the gardening-gun this spring and planted a few plants that really didn't need a head start in February... ie: Melon and Cukes... so giving AJ a few "experimental plants" was a load off my growing table and motherly mind. They were beginning to look "spent".

Back to the interview...

Growth Chart for Cukes

Me: So when you began playing music for the cucumber plants, what did you notice.
AJ: {he walks over to the fridge and brings me a sheet that he has been documenting the longest points of growth of both plants } I have noticed that the classical music plant has a slight difference in growth.

Me:   Did you change anything when moving to a new series of plants?

AJ: Well, we wanted to increase the music time first. So we went from one hour of music to two hours. We changed nothing else. They were both in the same window, received the same water, etc.

This is the cucumber plant that has 2 hours of classical music played, daily. Lucky thing!

This is the plant that has heavy metal played to if for 2 hours, every day. Kinda looks like me during daycare days! FRAZZLED!

The two plants together. 

So, what do you think? Are plants effected positively or negatively by the environments they are placed in. I will be the first to admit that I speak to my seedlings (and now teenager plants on a daily basis. Call me crazy... but I think it's working just dandy :o)

My friend Nadine, writer for Local-Lux.com has commented while sitting on our living room that its incredibly peaceful and tranquil. We are planning a home-birth in that very room... and I am excited to be surrounded by life, giving life, giving life.

Planted! {the early birds}

We planted 2 weeks ago at the Vineland Gardens on a productively exhausting Saturday. Our men were most certainly the heros of the day, allowing us lady folk the time for the tedious stuff. (carefully bending over our big baby bellies and sowing lettuces, peas, beets and the seedlings). Julia at one point looked like she was glowing with happiness and declared that she could do this forever and ever and that she was so happy.

Over and over.

So good to be a witness her contagious happiness.

She is due with her second baby at the end of this month. I am looking forward to meeting Hoovy #2

At the end of the 4 or 5 hour session, Julia and I felt totally exhausted and totally exhilarated knowing that leg of work was complete. My straw hat goes off to our husbands. They were SO incredible, all day. Hard working men who love their wives.

The big boys kept the little boys busy, ripping out an ENTIRE field of corn stocks with their hands. SK and Peter were both MORE than ready to hit their pillows early that evening.

Here are some shots from the day.

Early May Update

The bees are buzzing, tuplis and blossoms blooming, and May is off to a wonderful start. Last night we went for a mini-hike to the Eco-Park near our house. (sadly, it was cut short because yours truly has a bladder these days the size of a tennis ball). While there, I managed to immerse myself into all things spring here in Niagara. We are truly blessed to live in SUCH a beautiful part of Canada.

Here are some shots from last night. My point and shoot did a pretty good job capturing the essence of spring :o)

I love this man

On the home front, we hosted a little neighbourhood garden course this past weekend. I always have a few curious heads bobbing in and out of my gardens, and I thought I would be proactive and host a little informal "seed sowing" lesson for the kiddies. It was a good turn out (any more kids, and it would have been chaos) and they all went home with a little mini starter kit for beginning their own gardens. I did change the parents for the visit, only because the seeds, trays and soil were something I bought just for them. (Julia and I have a separate lot of seeds reserved JUST for the Vineland Gardens that we both have invested into)



Here is the big guy getting ready to have his pals over. He did the entire set-up himself. I am one blessed mamma bear.

Mr. Helper Man. Special thank you to LVT for lending me her hand shovels and rakes . Perfect!

I used these cucumber plants to show the kids what they'll be growing this summer. 

Spring {Inspired}